…searching for my family's history…

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What’s your ancestor score?

As 2014 kicks off, I realize I haven’t actually written a post in well over a year. So I figured it was time to attempt to get the blog up and functional again. What better way than to participate in Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun as outlined on his Genea-Musings blog? Our mission is to :

2) Create a table similar to Crista’s second table, and fill it in however you can (you could create an Ahnentafel (Ancestor Name) list and count the number in each generation, or use some other method). Tell us how you calculated the numbers.

3) Show us your table, and calculate your “Ancestral Score” – what is your percentage of known names to possible names (1,023 for 10 generations).

4) For extra credit (or more SNGF), do more generations and add them to your chart.

And my results:

1) I decided to keep my list to 10 generations as I knew going in that I was unlikely to have any names on my tree further back than that.

2 & 3) I generated an Ahnentafel list in Family Tree Maker and used it to count the numbers of ancestors I have located. I cross checked that information with my giant 9-generation paper chart. (I’m not always as consistent in updating it as I am the electronic information so it was a good opportunity to update things!)

Generation

Relationship

Possible #

Identified #

Percentage

1

Me

1

1

100%

2

Parents

2

2

100%

3

Grandparents

4

4

100%

4

Great-Grandparents

8

8

100%

5

2x Great-Grandparents

16

16

100%

6

3x Great-Grandparents

32

28

87.5%

7

4x Great-Grandparents

64

29

45%

8

5x Great-Grandparents

128

14

10.9%

9

6x Great-Grandparents

256

6

2.3%

10

7x Great-Grandparents

512

5

1.0%

Total

1023

113

11%

I’ve got a fair bit of information back to my 3x Great-Grandparents but things start to get a bit shaky further back that that. Now I can see where some of the gaps I need to feel are located. I’d really like to find the four missing 3x great-grandparents, for one!

4) I’m not going for extra credit as I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be any to be found!